Microsoft hasn't launched peer-to-peer TV and it isn't a Joost killer

There was a rash of blog stories last week along the lines of "Microsoft announces Joost killer" which I ignored for a few simple reasons: it wasn't new, it was misleading (it isn't a Joost-killer), and it was wrong (ie it wasn't a Microsoft launch). But that's not the end of the story.

There was a rash of blog stories last week along the lines of "Microsoft announces Joost killer" which I ignored for a few simple reasons: it wasn't new, it was misleading (it isn't a Joost-killer), and it was wrong (ie it wasn't a Microsoft launch). But that's not the end of the story.

Long Zheng pointed out the basic error and commented: "something like this clearly demonstrates how susceptible blogs can become to misinformation spreading like wild fire and how that problem can be compounded by the Chinese-whispers effect." True -- but it's not confined to blogs, of course.

What seems to have got this particular rubbish off the ground is a story in Ars Technica, which not only got the headline wrong (see above) but started with the sort of hypocritical twaddle that could, perhaps, appeal to some A-list bloggers. It said: "Sometimes it seems like Microsoft just can't be happy with improving its current software lineup. Instead, the company feels the need to reinvent, or flat-out buy, what someone else has already done." My theory is that by playing to their prejudices, Ars Technica simply bypassed their brains. However, I'll bow to pleas of incompetence as being the more obvious explanation.

Ars Technica has now given its story a new headline, a rewrite (so the opening has vanished without trace), and an update. No doubt they are deeply embarrassed about the quality of their original story, but would have been too much to add an apology as well?

In case anyone cares, the piece was about LiveStation, a peer-to-peer approach to delivering live BBC TV over the net, which Joost doesn't do. The British company behind it is called Skinkers, and it's using Microsoft's Silverlight plus two technologies (Pastry and SplitStream) licensed from Microsoft Research in Cambridge. They're partners, but Skinkers obviously isn't Microsoft.

We all make mistakes when rushing to do a story -- I've made plenty -- but what was the rush in this case? When Ars Technica ran it, the story was already three weeks old. Would another hour or two really have made a difference? Well, apart from reducing the number of readers attracted by a headline that didn't stand up.....